Like C. M. KORNBLUTH and Henry KUTTNER,
Stanley Weinbaum died young, yet produced a
body of work that would have a lasting influence
on the field and would continue to be read avidly
by generations that followed. This is a particularly
remarkable accomplishment in Weinbaum’s case,
because he was considerably less prolific than the
others, his first sale coming less than two years before his death.
“A MARTIAN ODYSSEY” (1934) remains one of
the most popular stories from the 1930s, recounting the adventures of a stranded astronaut on Mars
and his friendship with a decidedly alien creature.
Nearly as good was “The Lotus Eaters” (1935),
which featured intelligent plant life on the planet
Venus. “Dawn of Flame” (1936) is a story of life
after a devastating world war and is related to the
novel The Black Flame. “The Adaptive Ultimate”
(1935) is an effective superman story, and “Proteus
Island” (1936) is one of the earliest stories dealing
with manipulation of the human genetic structure.
“Parasite Planet” (1935), also set on Venus, portrays the local life-forms as inimical to humans; but
unlike in other stories from this period, this was
not the result of some innate evil quality of the
Venusians but part of their logically described and
understandable nature. Weinbaum’s stories have
been collected in The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum
(1974), The Red Peri & Others (1952), and A
Martian Odyssey (1949 and 1974, with differing
contents, the later edition containing his complete
short fiction).
Weinbaum’s novels (all published posthumously), while neither as polished nor as memorable as his short stories, were remarkably
sophisticated for their time, and hint at the writer
he might have become had he lived longer. The
Black Flame (1948), which includes “Dawn of
Flame,” is set in a postapocalyptic world whose
survivors eventually discover the secret of immortality. The Dark Other (1950) follows the misadventures of a scientist involved with consciousness
altering experiments who frees his darker self
in what is clearly an update of DR. JEKYLL AND
MR. HYDE (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson. A
superhuman attempts to find a place for himself
among ordinary humans in The New Adam (1939),
probably the most successful of his book-length
works. The hints of a greater talent that can be
found in Weinbaum’s small body of work make his
loss that much greater.